Senate District 009

Josh Blakely holds a bachelor's degree from Christopher Newport University, a graduate degree from Old Dominion University, and a graduate degree from Duke University. Blakely has lived in Virginia for over 30 years, and during that time, he has worked as a minister, educator, and public speaker. As a Delegate, he wants to apply his experience to improve the conditions of the rural communities of Virginia.

Blakely believes that community and individual worth are more important than partisan politics. He believes that each person should be empowered to determine their own future, and that they should be treated with respect and dignity. Specifically, he has said that his campaign has three main components which are “dignity over division, neighbors over negativity, and community over controversy”. Blakely wants to focus on these components to inspire a greater sense of connection in community.

Blakely pledges to improve K-12 education by demanding adequate funding to upgrade our schools, pay our teachers, and address unfunded mandates. He wants to expand rural broadband access and develop affordable programs for community members at all income levels to access high-speed, broadband internet. He pledges to protect all our neighbors and combat the oppression LGBTQ+ Virginians experience through strengthened anti-discrimination laws. He supports common-sense gun violence prevention measures. He supports abortion access and wants to ensure that reproductive healthcare decisions remain between people, their doctors, and their support systems.

Blakely is challenging incumbent Republican Delegate Tommy Wright. He has served as Delegate for District 61 since 2001. In recent years, he has supported multiple anti-trans and anti-public education bills aimed at harming LGBTQ+ youth, including co-sponsoring a bill to exclude trans girls from participating in school sports. He has also supported initiatives to weaken election protections and make it harder to vote.

Blakely is the most progressive choice for this race, as he is focused on building community and individual power.

Kimberly Moran is a working mom, employed both in the hospitality industry and as a certified tax preparer, where she helps others understand tax codes. Moran believes in the power of working together and building a thriving community. She is passionate about addressing important issues facing all the families, children, and residents of the 51st district, such as spending and investing tax dollars and surplus wisely, supporting a strong educational system, increasing services that support childcare for working families, helping everyone get quality healthcare in Virginia, and protecting the environment.

Moran will be an advocate for working families and their children. She aims to increase government funding and partnership with non-profit and private childcare sectors to provide the high quality resources needed to care for young children of working families. She will provide daycare teachers and workers with better training and higher wages to attract qualified teacher caregivers. These initiatives will be funded by fairly distributing tax surpluses among government services that serve the people and ensuring that corporations pay their fair share.

Moran understands how important it is to protect and expand the rights of all Americans. As such, she favors protecting and expanding reproductive rights, voting rights, and LGBTQrights. She aims to counter election disinformation and protect election officials. She pledges to support the Equal Rights Amendment. She believes that all people should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love. All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Expanding access to quality healthcare is also at the top of Moran’s priority list. She aims to push back against the for-profit healthcare sector and transform healthcare into an affordable, accessible service for all. In order to do that, she wants to expand the definition of healthcare to include mental, reproductive, and dental health. Additionally, she will fight to strengthen and expand access to local healthcare services. Finally, she will fight to lower insurance premiums, drug costs, and hospital charges.

Moran is also a common-sense gun violence prevention advocate. She believes that it’s possible to prevent gun violence while still allowing responsible gun ownership. She knows we need sensible regulations so that our children can be safe in school and our families can be safe in our sacred places of worship, a grocery store, at the movies, or just watching a parade. In order to do this, she advocates for stronger background checks to prevent unqualified individuals from purchasing firearms, compassionate extreme risk protection orders that allow someone experiencing a mental health crisis time to heal in a weapon-free zone, and complete bans on high capacity magazines and military style assault weapons.

Moran has two opponents in this race: Republican Eric Zehr and Independent Incumbent Delegate Matt Fariss. Zehr is an extremely right-wing candidate who believes the average Republican is too tame. Fariss is just as bad, having supported multiple anti-trans bills and opposed measures to expand election access.

Given her support for common sense gun violence prevention measures, protecting the rights of all people, supporting childcare workers, and expanding affordable, quality healthcare, Moran is the progressive choice in this race.